Home Depot (NYSE:HD) Trading Up 0.6%

The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)’s stock price shot up 0.6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $335.83 and last traded at $333.82. 629,093 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 3,331,795 shares. The stock had previously closed at $331.98.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer cut Home Depot from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Piper Sandler raised Home Depot from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $311.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Home Depot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Home Depot from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $325.00 to $372.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $375.96.

Home Depot Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 40.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $364.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $340.97. The stock has a market cap of $332.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.98.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The home improvement retailer reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.77 by $0.05. Home Depot had a return on equity of 1,452.22% and a net margin of 9.92%. The company had revenue of $34.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a dividend of $2.25 per share. This is a positive change from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.60%.

Insider Activity at Home Depot

In other news, EVP Timothy A. Hourigan sold 8,996 shares of Home Depot stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.74, for a total value of $3,317,185.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,950,123.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Timothy A. Hourigan sold 8,996 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.74, for a total transaction of $3,317,185.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,950,123.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Edward P. Decker sold 35,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $13,265,887.81. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 107,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,712,878.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Home Depot

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HD. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Home Depot by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,765,587 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $5,117,016,000 after acquiring an additional 992,444 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,217,777 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $4,540,197,000 after purchasing an additional 347,614 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Home Depot in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,311,070,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Home Depot by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,347,396 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $3,730,889,000 after purchasing an additional 153,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Home Depot by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 8,802,085 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $3,050,363,000 after buying an additional 195,670 shares during the period. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Home Depot Company Profile

The Home Depot, Inc operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and internationally. It sells various building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and décor products, as well as facilities maintenance, repair, and operations products. The company also offers installation services for flooring, water heaters, bath, garage doors, cabinets, cabinet makeovers, countertops, sheds, furnaces and central air systems, and windows.